/oss/taxonomy/term/3599/all en /oss/article/health-nutrition/health-supplements-good-bad-and-ugly <p>It is always a challenge to find a catchy headline for an article. For this one, a connection to the classic 1966 “spaghetti western” that propelled Clint Eastwood to fame seems fitting. The film is about three gunslingers who battle each other as they look for a stash of gold. “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,” is a great title that I hereby propose to swipe because I think it also captures the essence of the “health supplement” industry. Some supplements are potentially useful, some are useless, and some are outright ugly.</p> Fri, 07 May 2021 21:34:03 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8723 at /oss /oss/article/health/prevagen-mental-clarity <p>Wouldn’t we all like to have healthy brain function, a sharper mind and clearer thinking? Of course w,e would. And a dietary supplement called Prevagen promises to deliver the goods, at least according to the ads that are featured in magazines and on CNN ad nauseum. The supposed “active” ingredient is a protein called “apoaequorin” that according to the marketer “was originally plucked from a variety of jellyfish.” That bit of info is meant to conjure up an image of safety, catering to the notoriously false belief that natural substances are somehow inherently safer than synthetic ones.</p> Mon, 14 Jan 2019 16:15:40 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7534 at /oss